Bob Dylan unpublished lyrics to auction for $54,500 with Christie's

The previously unpublished lyrics to a Bob Dylan anti-nuclear song are to auction at Christie's on June 26 in London.

A renowned wordsmith, handwritten items from Dylan are especially sought after

The lyrics will highlight the Pop Culture auction, having never been released or seen on the market before. Containing Dylan's handwritten deletions and alterations, they are valued at up to £35,000 ($54,435).

The lyrics were donated to Izzy Young, who Bob Dylan had previously wrote about in his 1962 song Talking Folklore Centre. Young was the founder of the Folklore Centre in Greenwich Village, which was central to the early-1960s folk scene in New York and crucial to the development of Dylan's career.

"I was compiling a book of songs against the atom bomb and asked Dylan to contribute; he gave me this song the very next day," explained Young.

"Bob Dylan used to hang around the store and would look through every single book and listen to every single record I had."

The lyrics were written in 1963, around the time that Dylan was writing for his seminal album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Young says he has never sold anything of this importance before, but hopes to raise funds for the Folklore Centre in Stockholm.

"I have always had a passion for folk music and I have collected books and music since I was a kid. I produced my first catalogue of folk books in 1955, comprised of books that nobody had ever heard of - this was the beginning of the interest in American folk music."

Paul Fraser Collectibles is delighted to offer a Bob Dylan signed set list, which lists some of his most famous songs in his own hand.